The End Lies Beyond Chaos -Prologue Cutscene- FIX

This is a prologue cutscene to what will be The End Lies Beyond Chaos. I can't really explain the story very well coz I don't want to give out any big spoilers, of course.

Features of the upcoming proper scenario:

-Currently 210 triggers in the real scx, but 20 in this cutscene - full version will have over 500 triggers
-Cool map design mixing in "dead" gaia trees with Dirt 2 to represent the dead kingdom.
-2 cool short music files - full version will have a big background music.

Please, Lord Yuri, be careful with what you download. As for 'few Russian designers', it's not an excuse. ENOTH DESIGN has a whole pack of Russians (not speaking about British, German and Chinese, etc.) After all, AoK is more or less international (if not cosmopolitan). English grammar books are still available all over this World.

icrashonmyface

Posted on 05/15/02 @ 12:00 AM

Hey, why is there music playin on my computer all of a sudden? That's cool! Okay, people, I will now play this cutscene and offer my unbiased opinion. Please, both sides of the fightning need to stop. Can I call my commets final?

*goes into conquerors*

Be right back

icrashonmyface

Posted on 05/15/02 @ 12:00 AM

*comes back*

Okay, guys. I played it. Or watched it. I will waste no words and take sides with neither:

This "movie", as I will call it, will definetly hook the player into downloading the actual campaign. This movie [b]does not[/b] deserve the blatant insults that you see above. It is in no way poorly designed or lacking ingenuity. I enjoyed watching it. I will be indifferent as to the storyline, (I don't care for magic) but I can say that this cutscene gives a great impression of the story to come. However, I would not commend it for a fantastic score, and here is why:

~ Game speed. I had to restart the game and set it to slow when the beginning chats started [i]flying[/i]by. I would reccomend, Robert, that you have a playtester test specifically for timing, because, I know, my timing is also way too short, and the only way around this is feedback.

If this problem was solved, players would be able to really have time to think and maybe look at the map, which I might say is well done but close to being cluttered... (again, jsut my taste)

So, people, please download this and take heed to my humble opinion. Yuri, I hope you don't mind. Maybe I should post this in your preview topic.

-crasher

LoRd_YuRi_NiNjAFile Author

Posted on 05/16/02 @ 12:00 AM

OK so it's unfinished. I will make a much larger update into a 10 minute cutscene. I only made it short because some people a while back in the forums were talking about the Tamerlane cutscene being bad at 8 minutes long...

Torped0: get a grammar dictionary!
crasher: The music was made using {bgsound src="sound address.mid/mp3/wav"} with <> instead of {}

LoRd_YuRi_NiNjAFile Author

Posted on 05/16/02 @ 12:00 AM

oops, didn't read correctly :p

I thought that you said it would not make people download the actual campaign, but I was wrong! :D

My only worries about the actual campaign is the story... ok, I am pretty good with instructions now, but what about the story?

LoRd_YuRi_NiNjAFile Author

Posted on 05/16/02 @ 12:00 AM

Special thanks goes to Torped0 for teaching me how to make bg sounds with HTML and for uploading them to my website! http://angier.co.uk/~robert/aokindex.html maybe a bit cluttered but the BG image for some reason won't upload! :(

LoRd_YuRi_NiNjAFile Author

Posted on 05/17/02 @ 12:00 AM

OK, in this update version I only got to fix the timing, hopefully it's longer but I can't guarantee the best cutscene on earth ;)

deathdart

Posted on 06/02/02 @ 12:00 AM

Gr8 work Yuri

LoRd_YuRi_NiNjAFile Author

Posted on 06/05/02 @ 12:00 AM

Thx for the compliments ppl. find out more by checking out the forum topic I mentioned.

crasher

Posted on 06/10/02 @ 12:00 AM

Rating

3.8

Breakdown

Playability

2.0

Pacing

4.0

Creativity

5.0

Map Design

4.0

Story/Instructions

4.0

- OUTLINE

The End Lies Beyond Chaos is centered around the Character Lydiaro, and his amigo, Hotu. They are the sole survivors of A place called T'alabama that was I think wiped out by an evil guy named Xenophon. Xenophon is a madman on a quest for some rhunestones that have some kind of power. His enemy, Seiken Revetsu, is very screwed, from the looks of things. The only hope is Lydiaro and his Bully Birgands...

Okay, I would not have explained all that if the game wasn't so complex, and I thought that players would be able to take it all in. But there's a lot going on, so you might want to read this, or even consult Yuri to find out exactly how things are looking for the next chapter. (actually the first chapter) It is supposed to have been slowed down, but In my experience, I still had to hit f3... But if you were at all interested by my recap, then you need to download this and watch it!

I'll go in order of best score to worst, category wise, so you can read what is good about this first.

- CREATIVITY: (5) Yuri definetly has one very shiny imagination here. There is so much going on, and I must say that this is a very unique story, a unique style all together. In short, this is perfectly done. Whether or not that helps or hinders him later, read on...

- STORY/ INSTRUCTIONS: (4) The story here is kind hard to understand, but very good and it is a great setup for the actual campaign. However, instead of "sitting back and getting a bag of chips", I found myself trying to remember everything and even taking notes (for the sake of this review) So, it is rather quick, and hard to take in all at once.

- MAP DESIGN: (4) Yuri has paid a lot of attention to detail here. It is very well laid out, and Yuri's "style" is evident in the heavy use of Gaia others... But it is hard to pick up right away what I'm seeing. In both the ruins of T'alabama and Xenophon's place, I had to take it in, it was kind of jumbled for the sake of knowing what's going on. Very detailed, but it's slipping into "cluttered" Ie, I say "what's this supposed to be?"

- BALANCE: (4) [changed] Thank you TAnneur for letting me know about the new review standards for "balance" in a cutscene. the score was a 3 before, but the average (of the other 4 categories)is a 3.75, so that is a 4. Good job.

- PLAYABITY: (2) Even harder to judge than balance, because theoretically, I'm not actually "playing" But I've graded this depending on the games overall, well, dang. Playability. Let me put it this way. I don't consider something playable, well, let's say "fun to play/watch" if I am confused and have stop, look at the chats, look around, and think about the plot and what is going on in the story. The first and second scenes, mainly, require the player to (unless you have a photographic memory, and you are a speed reader) watch it twice to get it all.

- IMPROVING:

This is the bright side. The score could be raised to above a 4, if these things are done:

Story/ instructions: the history should be given to the player at a little more slower pace, and maybe be a little bit less complicated. There's a bunch of stones, and a bunch of mysterious people, things should be explained in history or instructions maybe. But I know how much I hate to read an essay before or after I play. So my advice would be, less complicated; after all, it's just the beginning...

Map design. Things here should be a little less cluttered. It looks rather like a torched landscape, and that is exactly what Yuri wants, but there are some Gaia others that are just over used or out of place, Ie, rubble

Balance and Playability: Both of these scores could be vastly improved by: 1 gining the player a complete recap of everything in the victory; this sounds unusual, but it is a cutscene, and it should really set a good foundation for the next scen. What I want is to be able to watch it, and instead of playing again cuz I didn't get the whole thing, I wanna play it again cuz I got it the first time and I enjoyed it. The scenario, to my knowledge, dosen't present any new tricks. A beginnner would be blown away by the fireballs etc. while a veteran would be dissapointed in not having it jump out at him.

So, I could wrap up the tips in saying: Slow it down more and make sure things are explained perfectly. This could be so easily improved, and it's the kind of thing that I'd be happy to see it done correctly. (and maybe redo the review)

Sorry this is so long, But I want Yuri to know exactly where he stands with this, in the players eyes. I hope you take all this in, because there is a lot of potential for a high score.